Sports

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Eagle girls start off in Iraan, boys' game canceled

The Pecos Eagle boys closed out four years of District 2-4A basketball
play this past February by having their final district game, against the
San Elizario Eagles, canceled.

Nine months later it's a new season and the teams are now in different
districts, but the results are the same _ Pecos' scheduled home game tonight
against San Elizario has been canceled.

Meanwhile, the Eagle girls, who saw both of their season-opening games
last week get canceled, will finally get to open 2002-03 play tonight in
Iraan, with junior varsity and varsity games against the Braves at 5 and
6:30 p.m.

Pecos was scheduled to open up their season last Tuesday against Crane
and then travel to Alpine on Friday. But both the Cranes and Bucks ended
up in the Region I-2A volleyball tournament finals, and Alpine also had a
bi-district football game scheduled for Friday night, so the Eagles ended
up with an extra week of pre-season practice.

With most of her girls coming in from volleyball the previous week, that
did give coach Veronica Valenzuela an extra six days to set things up for
the team, which returns most of its players from last season, when the Eagles
finished with a 2-18 record, after missing the playoffs by one game the previous
season.

Valenzuela said she would carry a dozen players on the varsity tonight,
and would try and get everyone into the game. "It's the first game, so I'm
going to get them all in there and see what they can do together," she said.

Pecos had problems both in shooting the ball last season and handling
the press on offense, things Valenzuela hopes will improve this season. "If
we can stop trying to rush everything, I think we'll do all right," she said.

Iraan opened their season a week ago with a 40-27 loss to Reagan County.
"I don't know much about Iraan, but they should be good," said Valenzuela.
"They don't play volleyball, so they've had their girls out (for basketball)
all season."

Coach Joe Flores said the boys were expecting to host San Eli tonight,
but found out the morning their former 2-4A rivals wouldn't be making the
trip to Pecos. "They apparently scheduled two games for tonight, against
us and El Paso High, and decided to play them instead," Flores said.

The boys have been off since last Tuesday, when they dropped their regular
season opener at home against Andrews, 49-38. Pecos' next scheduled game
is their road opener, this coming Friday night at Van Horn. Pecos' girls
will also face Van Horn on Friday, in their home opener for the 2002-03 season.